Real early career of a man would very well would have been a respectable welterweight champion, if he didn't have the misfortune to fight in such a hyper competitive and high quality era. Enjoy! This content is protected
Full credit to Oba Carr. Like his stablemate Thomas Hearns he was afraid of no opponent. Carr never took the easy route and when fighting for the Title he fought the best of his era. Felix Trinidad, Ike Quartey and Oscar De La Hoya.
Respect to Carr, from one Michigan guy to another. He was a stylish boxer with good athletic gifts, natural boxing instincts, and the benefit of Emmanuel Steward's sage advice. He and Dale Brown (perinnial cruiserweight contender) had similar career trajectories. Word on the street though was that Oba was a bit of a headcase. Not in the sense of getting DUI's, beating up his significant other, or being busted selling drugs, but more in the line of Andre Dirrell, crumbling under pressure. Interviews from his career reveal that Oba had a tendancy to get inside his own head and invent things that weren't there. He claimed to be overtrained several times and after the fight with Oscar he gave an interview, I believe to the LA Times where he claimed he knew months in advance that he beat Oscar because the whole world was against him. If you're laying in bed in Big Bear California two months before the opening bell, convincing yourself you can't possibly win because you feel like everyone wants you to lose, your mindset needs work. I'm not trying to get down on the guy. I actually think he was terrific and he could have been champion. Unfortunately he was the one who didn't think he could be.
He was a very good boxer who's style was aesthetically appealing to me anyway. I remember his fight with Derrell Coley as a real high quality scrap between two very even fighters for the North American title. In another era fighters of that quality would be meeting for a world title (I thought Coley edged it for what it's worth. Welterweight was ridiculously stacked in the 90's-early 00's. Whitaker, Oscar, Quartey, Trinidad, Jose Luis Lopez, James Page, Six Heads Lewis, Vernon Forrest, Carr, Coley, Campas, Mosley, Rafael Pineda etc
